Diana Davis has complied a list of ideas.

It happens every year in May, and pastors anticipate it expectantly. Mother’s Day promises a high energy, high attendance Sunday, with a smiling, eager congregation. There’ll be extra guests galore — sons, daughters and grandchildren attending worship services with their mother. There will be new mothers, pregnant moms, substitute moms, stepmothers, foster moms, grandmothers. What an opportunity!

No pressure, pastor, but how will this Mother’s Day be different from last year’s celebration? How can your church esteem mothers, yet point the worship service toward God? It’s time to get creative. Need a few fresh ideas?

MOM & ME VIDEO

Ask the tech team to interview children and prepare a montage of testimony clips explaining why “My Mom’s the Best!” Or invite the youth group to prepare a short video to honor their mothers. Or gather dozens of photos of church members with their mothers for a slide show set to music. Use the video for pre-service viewing or play it along with an appropriate music special.

HERE’S YOUR DAISY

If your church presents gifts on Mother’s Day, it’s a good idea to give one to each woman present. (Many childless women have been like a mother to other children.) Each year’s gift can be unique and meaningful, such as:

A single flower.

A book. A CD. A pin. A pen.

Multi-ribbon bookmarks for her Bible.

A corsage made by children in your church.

Laminated copy of an original Mother’s Day poem.

A scripture bookmark with original art by a church youth.

Recruit a different group of people to present the gift each year, i.e. teen boys, deacons, fifth-grade girls, new members, elderly men or church staff.

OLD WOMEN, PLEASE STAND

Not to be a fuddy-duddy, but pointing out the oldest, youngest and most prolific mothers during worship is not always flattering. As an alternative, consider recognizing mothers with a new baby since last year, great-grandmothers, mothers of teenagers or mothers of military. Then include all mothers in a thanksgiving prayer.

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Well it’s that time of year again.  Here’s a collection of Mother’s day video clips and creative ideas of how you can celebrate Mother’s day in your Sunday Worship service.

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Leaders weigh in on whether churches should celebrate Mother’s Day in worship services.

“I certainly think we should want to support motherhood; parenthood is the cornerstone of the family. We should be celebrating cultural rhythms liturgically. I think we can choose secular holidays to blur the line between secular and sacred, recognizing there’s no place God isn’t. But we really need to be holistic in the way that we celebrate, and realize that we can hold in tension the wonder of what motherhood is as well as the challenges and some of the grief. That’s the best of worship—when we have that kind of paradox.”

Sally Morgenthaler, author, Worship Evangelism

“In our culture, these really are significant days when we honor dads and moms. Mother’s Day is almost like the elephant in the room—and important to acknowledge, to break down this secular-sacred divide that is sometimes so much a part of religious life in America. Because that is on people’s minds, and the rest of the day will certainly be spent honoring mothers and thanking God for mothers—whether still alive or no longer with us—that’s certainly something to lift up in the worship service.”

Kurt Fredrickson, associate dean, Fuller Theological Seminary

“Churches should seize upon any opportunity to honor the profession of motherhood (or fatherhood for that matter). There’s no harm in churches taking a moment to show respect to the parents and grandparents who have participated in the healthy, God-ordained activity of rearing children.”

Brett McCracken, author, Hipster Christianity

“On Sunday morning you have 500 cars driving to church. You have 100 people who are angry when they think of mothers, and a lot of people all mixed up together. It’s not just a connecting point with culture, but it’s giving voice to these rather deep experiences that people have. That’s one of the main functions of worship in general, and that ought to be happening every week. It just happens that on Mother’s Day it’s dominant in people’s minds.”

John D. Witvliet, director, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship

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Rob Rash is working to find better and more efficient ways to communicate and practice.

I’m always tweaking things. I tweak my phone, my computer, my office, and even my house.

I’ll work at something until it fits, works, or just looks right. As a guitarist, I’m never satisfied with my tone, my action, or my ability. I’m always tweaking things to try and get better, smoother, or faster.

We Can Always Get Better

There are great similarities in the realities of life and the journey that every single soul is on with the journey of faith. We are constantly being pressured, challenged, and changed.

As a worship pastor, I’m always looking at ways to tweak my team, to find better and more efficient ways to communicate and practice. Stepping up my leadership is one major factor, and if you are looking for some books to get started, I’d suggest these.

But even more so than reading a few books and blog posts, I’d like to offer something my team and I have been doing a bit differently that has already made a big difference.

The 20 Minute Tune Up

Most rehearsals go like this: Everyone arrives; a few hello’s; guitars start tuning; drummers start arranging their sets; keyboards start setting up their tones; and vocalists starting warming up their voices.

It can be straight up crazy and hectic. Hardly a time to communicate and get everyone on the same page. So stop fighting the temptations, and noise, and start setting the tone of practice and worship by slowing down.

Take the first 20 or so minutes of your rehearsal and leave the stage. That’s right…leave the stage. Head to your office, green room, or any quiet, private place free of distractions.

Lead your team in a worshipful devotion if you like, and spend a few minutes in prayer. Next, have your worship set queued up in a playlist and ready to go.

Highlighters Ready…

Give your team their music folders or chord sheets and something to write with. (I love highlighters and fine point Sharpies). Start playing your worship songs in the order you will be playing them and encourage conversation. Ask everyone to take notes on their specific parts, i.e. bass lines, drum beats, guitar solos, etc.

Talk through each song about ideas, transitions, and anything relevant to your group. Then, when you’re done, head on into your playing space, and get at it.

This won’t stop all distractions or eliminate every rough patch, but I think you’ll be surprised at how much smoother your rehearsals will go and how unifying this process can be.

Just keep tweaking what works for you and your team. You may only need to listen to the first half of each song, or quite possibly, you may need to listen to the songs again. The idea is there is a time of focus, mental preparation, and spiritual slowness that will really benefit you and your team.

Give it a shot…it will be well worth your time.

Ed Stetzer talked with about 60 staff members from three megachurches.

What do you think of when you hear the word megachurch? Maybe polished productions, big personalities, an expansive building, stellar programs (lots and lots of programs) and crowded parking lots with orange-vested attendants, come to mind. Maybe a great worship service that leaves you laughing, crying or both. Or perhaps a creative children’s ministry–kind of a Jesus-meets-Chuck E. Cheese type of place.

To most people, the word mega suggests bigness and power, not necessarily missional ministry and sacrifice. (It combines nicely with well-known words like megalomaniac, megaphone and mega-millions. Words like mega-service, mega-sacrifice, and mega-witness, well … not so much.) Although mega is not exactly a word we think of when subjects like Jesus, the Bible or the early Church are discussed, it definitely grabs our attention.

But what’s next for megas besides the infamous big productions and headline-making numbers? People have been criticizing the practices and predicting the demise of megachurches for more than a decade now, and some of their criticisms are valid. Many megachurches are not living with a Kingdom focus–unless that kingdom has the megachurch pastor as the sovereign. At times megachurches have been shallow, ego-driven and less than engaged in their community.

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Chris Huff explains that audio production is hard work and mixing is only part of it.

What They Don’t Tell You About Church Audio

1. Worst-case scenarios really do happen.

If it can break, blow up, catch fire, power down, or in any way outright fail at the worst time possible, it will.  I’ve had a mixer blow a fuse.  Just last week a wireless mic battery failed mid-service for no apparent reason.  Green light to DEAD – no red warning light in between.

Worst-case scenarios can force the tech to learn parts of the audio system normally left untouched.  Mix engine reboots, digital mixer configuration settings, under-stage cabling, whatever is normally taken for granted will eventually fail – usually during the church service.

2. Audio Production is hard work and mixing is only part of it.

For some, this is a big revelation.  Mixing is only a part of audio production.  Stage setup, battery replacement, and cable maintenance are all part of the job.  And if that’s not enough, see point #1. Oh, did I mention it requires working with people!?! (only sort of a joke for some of us)

Mixing isn’t always easy.  For example, the church has two guitarists and a singer.  That’s all they’ve had for years.  Next weekend, they will have their first full-size worship team.  Time for a new mixing strategy.  This isn’t impossible but it does require learning amp miking, drum miking, and a new way of mixing.

3. It requires your A-game AND there are distractions

Live audio is no place for slacking.  Once, from the pulpit, a pastor called my name TWICE before I snapped out of a daydream.  Talk about embarrassing.  Focus is crucial.

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Tim Adams: The leadership has asked you to tell them how much it will cost to get a live stream of the service out to the Internet…now what?!?!?

Ok, first off, you’ll need to figure out your signal flow. Let’s assume that you’ve got a couple video cameras, some kind of recorder (hard drive-based, flash- or solid-state-based, or DVD), and a switcher. These are the basics of any video ministry system.

Outlining the Basics

First, your signal flow follows a logical path regardless of the equipment that you have. Your cameras are your sources, your switcher switches between these sources, and your signal terminates at your recorder, projector(s), and/or your live stream. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you bring the audio from the cameras into your recorder, but I would highly recommend you get a signal sent to your recorder from the audio mixer to have the highest quality.

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Joshua Watts likens worship leading to storytelling.

One thing that was drilled into me through my communications and theatre classes in my schooling was that “art tells a story.” An artist is simply a storyteller. Many artists struggle to find a story to tell, and undoubtedly some stories are worth telling more than others, but all art tells a story. We artists and creatives must hone our craft and skills to be able to communicate a story with authenticity, sometimes with subtlety, sometimes with overtness, and always with excellence.

For those of us who are disciples of Christ and artists in the local church, the story we are responsible for communicating is clear: the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior. The result of all we do should enlarge people’s view of Jesus Christ.

This includes worship pastors and worship leaders! We are artists by nature – even if some of you don’t feel especially artistic! And whether you realize it or not, you are telling a story from the platform every single week. Maybe the story you are inadvertently telling is how fantastic of a musician you are, or maybe it’s the story of how your stage design is so amazing. Or maybe, and hopefully, you are communicating Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

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